The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 5

rn' C12 cj-South Jersey THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Sunday, June 9, 1996 Men's French Open final features 2 long shots get past Pete Sampras. Yevgeny Kafelnikov had to Michael Stich defeated the By Salvatore Zanca ASSOCIATED PRESS PARIS The French Onen men's final today brings together two players who began the tournament as long shots, one of whom worried that he would embarrass himself. Sixth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, who whipped top-seeded Pete Sampras, and 15th-seeded Michael Stich of Germany, who defeated defending champion Thomas Muster, had the odds stacked he had lost to the eventual champion. Kafelnikov leads, six matches to three, in career competition against Stich but has lost both times they have played best-of-five matches, in the U.S. Open and in a Davis Cup meeting.

Their season records are also a contrast. Stich, because of his injuries, is just 14-2, while Kafelnikov is 41-11, nearly the most victories on the circuit because he enters many tournaments and plays doubles as well. Kafelnikov teamed with Daniel Vacek to win the doubles final here yesterday. Kafelnikov sailed into the final, dropping just one set in six matches, including a three-set rout of Sampras in the semifinals. "In this week in the French Open, my game just exploded.

I'm playing with a lot of confidence," Kafelnikov said. Kafelnikov made the semifinals last year with a fine all-around game, in contrast to baseliners such as two-time champion Sergi Bru-guera and Muster. "This year was definitely the chance for the serve-and-volleyers, the guys who are especially serving well," Stich said. Defending champion Graf outduels Sanchez for 5th title in Paris 4 1 I A- defending champion. against them from the start.

Stich underwent surgery in March on his left ankle after rein-juring his foot minutes before a match in a tournament in Milan. He did not return until the Italian Open last month, losing in the second round. "I said to my coach, 'I don't know if I should go to France and look like an idiot playing on the Stich said. Now Stich, 27, is shooting for his Sanchez takes a breather during the final. The Spaniard had beaten Graf in 1989 in the championship match in Paris.

After the match, Graf smiled and laughed and cried and Sanchez fought back tears. Graf had promised last year to speak to the crowd in French and, at first, she was too nervous to recite a prepared speech. Then, closing her eyes, Graf thanked the fans and, appropriately, Sanchez. The results Seedings in parentheses. MEN'S DOUBLES Championship: Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russia, and Daniel Vacek, Czech Republic (7), def.

Guy Forget, France, and Jakob Hlasek, Switzerland (5), 6-2, 6-3. MIXED DOUBLES Championship: Patricia Tarabini and Javier Frana, Argentina, def. Nicole Arendt, Gainesville, and Luke Jensen, Atlanta, 6-2, Woodbury is stunned by laugher Woodbury buried Cedar Grove in the state Group 1 softball final. It wasn't supposed to be so easy. By Joey Culligan INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT TOMS RIVER, N.J.

The Woodbury softball team was prepared for everything yesterday. Everything except an easy game in its state Group 1 title game against North Jersey champion Cedar Grove. Which is why the Woodbury players were as shocked by their 16-1 victory at Toms River North as the Cedar Grove players themselves. The game was ended after five innings by the 10-run rule. "I never thought it would be this kind of game," said Woodbury lead-off hitter Mandy Schramm, who went 2 for 4 and scored three runs.

"I'm not shocked at how well we played, but we expected to play a good team and to play a close We played and won a lot of 10-run rule games this season, so I shouldn't be too surprised. I would have liked to play in a closer game, but I'll take this one." The convincing victory gave coach Jerry Miskar's team its first state title since 1983. The Thundering Herd (23-1) also became the second Colonial Conference team to win a state title yesterday, following up on West Deptford's 6-5 win over A.L. Johnson in the Group 2 championship game. Woodbury which became the first South Jersey team to win a Group 1 state title since Florence in 1987 jumped on Cedar Grove (25-5) for five runs without a hit in the top of the first inning.

The North Jersey team committed three errors in the inning. Those were all the runs winning pitcher Stephanie Gale would need. The junior righthander allowed only two hits and one run to raise her season record to 19-1. "We were coming off a tough 4-3 conference win over West Deptford last week, and we expected this to be another tough game," Gale said. "This was a state championship game, and we never expected it would be this easy.

This is a great feeling because it was another great team effort. "This is very characteristic of the way our team has played all season. We get a lot of hits, and we manufacture a lot of runs." Woodbury outscored its six tournament opponents by 53-6. Corinne Gawason had two hits and two RBIs, and Stacie Block and Stacey Schramm also had two RBIs in the title game. Kim Nicgorski and Courtney Wright knocked in single runs.

Woodbury Cedar Grove S04 16- 16 11 1 001 00- 1 2 3 WP: Stephanie Gale. LP: Quyen Tran. 2B: W-Stacie Block, Jaime Schroeder, Shannon Ritter. High School Scoreboard NJSIAA TOURNAMENT State Group 1 final Riverside 4, Whippany Park 2 State Group 2 final Audubon 8, Newton 3 State Group 3 final Steinert 4, Nutley 3 State Group 4 final Middletown South 2, Bloomfield 1 State Parochial A final Delbarton 8, Camden Catholic 3 State Parochial final Gloucester Catholic 9, Pope John XXIII 1 NJSIAA TOURNAMENT State. Group 1 final Woodbury 16, Cedar Grove 1 State Group 2 final West Deptford 6, Johnson 5, 10 Inns.

State Group 3 final Central Regional 1, Paramus 0 State Group 4 final Cherokee 11, Montclair 0 State Parochial A final Immaculate Heart 3, Bishop Ahr 0 State Parochial final Bishop Eustace 8, Mt. St. Dominic 3 Baseball COLONIAL CONFERENCE Sterling at Audubon, 3:45 Softball COLONIAL CONFERENCE Woodbury at Gateway, 4 second Grand Slam title. He won at Wimbledon in 1991. "This is something I never would have believed could or would happened," Stich said.

"But it happened." Kafelnikov, 22, is in his first Grand Slam final. He had been tabbed as a potential champion since taking Sampras to five sets in the second round at the 1994 Australian Open and leading Russia to the Davis Cup final twice. But he lost in the Davis Cup final's deciding match last December to Sampras and lost in this year's Australian Open to Boris Becker, marking the second year in a row An appreciative Steffi Graf kisses the final of the French Open. The scorer of the playoffs, took a pass from Adam Deadmarsh along the right boards, broke loose on a and beat Vanbiesbrouck high to the glove side from the right circle. That put the Panthers on the down side of the score after two periods, a situation in which they were 1-7 in the playoffs.

The Rat's Nest had grown eerily silent, Colorado 1 2 63 Florida 2 0 02 FIRST PERIOD: 1, Colorado, Lemieux 5 (Kamensky, Forsberg), 2:44. 2, Florida, Sheppard 8 (Straka, Jovanovski), 9:14 (pp). 3, Florida, Nie-dermeyer 5 (Mellanby, Garpenlov), 11:19. Penalties: Deadmarsh, Col (hookingi, Foote, Col (roughing), Lowry, Fla (roughing), 12:49. SECOND PERIOD: 4, Colorado, Keane 3 (Foote, Gusarov), 1:38.

5, Colorado, Sakic 18 (Deadmarsh, Leschyshyn), 3:00. Penalties: None. THIRD PERIOD: None. Penalties: None. SHOTS ON GOAL: Colorado 6-10-622.

Florida 16-13-534. POWER-PLAY OPPORTUNITIES: Colorado 0 of Florida 0 of 1. GOALIES: Colorado, Roy 15-6 (34 shots-32 saves). Florida, Vanbiesbrouck 12-9 (22-19). 14,703 REFEREE: Andy Van Hellemond.

LINESMEN: Ray ScapinetJo, Brian Murphy. ft if 2 I Associated Press REMY DE LA MAUVINIERE the cup after defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 10-8, in victory gave Graf her 19th Grand Slam singles title. Stanley Cup Notes FRENCH OPEN from C1 come so close and lost. "Everybody can see that it was a great match," she said. "It was very emotional.

All the tension and all the nerves. I was so close. It was a very emotional day for me. I have to congratulate her. We both played our best game." Sanchez, a two-time winner here, barely made a dent in the first set, which Graf stormed through in 40 minutes.

The Spaniard hit only three winners. The second set offered four consecutive service breaks, and Sanchez had two break points in the eighth game but failed to convert. Graf dominated the start of the tiebreaker and jumped to a four-games-to-one lead. But she lost six consecutive points and committed five unforced errors to lose the set. "In the tiebreaker, I was gone," Graf said.

"I was so nervous, I couldn't keep the ball in play." Graf never fully settled down. She pommitted 72 unforced errors, an unheard-of number. Both players were hitting deep, and Graf, in particular, was firing for the lines. Sanchez broke Graf in the fifth game of the third set. She had spent three more hours on the court than Graf in reaching the final and, even with her reputation for being indefatigable, Sanchez was tiring.

Graf held in a crucial game to pull to three games to four. She said later that if she had lost the game, she would have expected to lose the match. She credited the crowd with helping her pick up her game in the beginning of the set. They chanted her name during changeovers and clearly supported her over Sanchez Vicario. Avalanche top Panthers for 3-0 lead AVALANCHE from C1 Detroit's Kris Draper in the Western Conference finals, scored his fifth goal of the playoffs 2 minutes, 44 seconds into the first'period.

But the Panthers cut the fairy tale short by scoring back-to-back goals in 2:05 to take a 2-1 lead into the second period. Lemieux was understandably a bit nervous about playing for the first time since May 29. Although he rode an exercise bike daily and tried to stay sharp during the layoff, his strategy was to keep his shifts short and active. "I kept myself in as good shape as I could, and I just want to get out there and contribute," Lemieux said after practice Friday. "I think your mind will carry you to anything you want to go through." It was the slot that Lemieux went through to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead.

Stationed alongside Florida center Martin Strafta in front of Vanbiesbrouck, Lemieux took a pass from Valeri Kamensky, who had eluded Robert Svehla behind the net, and pushed a shot over the goal line. To make room for Lemieux, who played with Kamensky and Peter Forsberg, left winger Warren Ry-chel did not dress. Statistically, that goal was huge for the Avalanche. Colorado went into the game with a 9-2 mark in playoff games in which they scored first. The Panthers, however, were not interested in numbers.

After allowing five of the game's first six shots, the Panthers fired the next eight shots at Colorado goalie Patrick Roy and took the lead on goals by Ray Sheppard at 9:14 and Rob Nieder-mayer at 11:19. Sheppard, a 32-goal scorer in the regular season, was long overdue to put the puck in the net. Shut out since Game 3 of the Eastern Confer- Flyers wouldn't deal a star for another star Associated Press PAUL CHIASSON Colorado's Claude Lemieux, who returned after a two-game suspension, celebrates his goal with teammate Peter Forsberg. NHL Playoffs Stanley Cup Finals COLORADO VS. FLORIDA Game 1: Colorado, 3-1 Game 2: Colorado, 8-1 Game 3: Colorado, 3-2.

Game 4: Tomorrow at Florida, 8 "Game 5: Thursday at Colorado, 8 Game 6: Saturday at Florida, 8 Game 7: June 17 at Colorado, 8 Colorado leads series, 3-0 -If necessary. those players, and the Panthers will have built-in character for a long time." Weary Panthers. MacLean wasn't as angry after Thursday's 8-1 loss to Colorado in Game 2 as he was embarrassed. The Panthers, he pointed out, are still playing, and the Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins are all home watching the series on TV. "When you have one bad game in your last 20, it's tough to get too upset," MacLean said.

So, what did the coach cite as the blame for Thursday's poor effort? He said the Penguins may have made his club work too hard in the seven-game Eastern Conference finals. "Coming off a huge emotional series, it was tough to jump back 2Vi days later," MacLean said. "That's not an excuse. I'm giving Colorado full marks. But it may have been a little too much for us.

I thought we may have been a touch tired." Notes. Clarke said the Flyers bought out the contract of minor-league goalie Tim Cheveldae. Former Flyer Yanick Dupre, stricken with leukemia, has made great progress, Clarke said, and may not require a bone-marrow Uy Gary Miles INQUIRER STAFF WRITER MIAMI Flyers general manager Bob Clarke has begun the process of hammering out a new contract for star center Eric Liridros, but don't look for Clarke to add another superstar to his roster this summer. Although Chicago Blackhawks center Jeremy Roenick, a restricted free agent, is exactly the type of player he scores and hits who could juice up the Flyers' offense, Clarke said he was unwilling to tear up his nucleus to add another big-name player. "We're not in that position," Clarke said.

"To get star players like that you have to give up star players, and we don't want to do that." Lindros, last season's Hart Trophy winner as the NIIL's most valuable player and a finalist again this season, has two years left on a six-year deal that paid him $4.2 million this season. But Clarke does not want to wait until the Flyers captain is close to free agency to re-sign him. Clarke, who also is eager to sign goalie Ron Hextall to a new deal, signed forwards John LeClair and Mikael Renberg to long-term, million-dollar deals this past season. A pride thing. Clarke, the general manager of the Florida Panthers in 1993, is being hailed, these days as the mastermind behind the building of the Panthers, who lost to the Colorado Avalanche here last night in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals.

But Clarke credits former Panthers coach Roger Neilson with making the Panthers believe in themselves. "He gave them something to have pride in," Clarke said of Neilson, who was fired before this season by general manager Bryan Murray and replaced by Doug MacLean. "They competed every night under Roger. I think he had a major impact on ence finals against Pittsburgh on May 24, Sheppard notched his eighth playoff goal by whizzing a power-play shot from the left circle between Roy's feet. Before the Avalanche had a chance to compose themselves, Nie-dermayer, another Florida forward who was due for a big game, beat Roy on a rebound from the right circle.

Suddenly, the Avalanche appeared very beatable. They were outshot, 16-6, by the Panthers in the first period, and Roy uncharacteristically left rebounds in the slot and was repeatedly caught out of position. On several plays, the Avalanche couldn't even clear the puck from their own zone. Unfortunately for the Panthers, the first period ended. And when the second period started, the Avalanche regained the explosive offensive form that was the difference in Games 1 and 2.

Keane used teammate Mike Ricci as a screen out front to beat Vanbiesbrouck from the left point at 1:38. Then, at 3:00, Sakic, the leading Home run leaders Steve Deyo, Hammonton 11 Blaine Neal, Bishop Eustace 9 Dan Tarasevich, Millville 8 Scott Yeager, Camden Catholic 8 Scott Conway, Lenape 7 Bob Diepold, Camden Catholic 7 Ron Dorsey, Hammonton 7 Justin Foerter, Holy Cross 6 Bob McFetridge, West Deptford 6 George Roane, Woodstown 6 Charlie Rogers, Millville 6 Tony Brown, Sterling 5 John Byrwa, Kingsway 5 Dan Coia, Buena 5 Mark Freed, Pennsville 5 Mike Ptaff, Ocean City i 5 Rob Roseboro, Collingswood 5 Vaughn Schill, Audubon 5 Aaron Taylor, Camden Catholic 5 Brian Ward, Gloucester Catholic 5 Bill Wilsoh, 5 3 -i -ii 'kh 'kmtm i.